The 15th City of Lights, City of Angels (COL-COA) Film Festival began its annual celebration of French films with an opening night gala on April 11, at DGA headquarters in Los Angeles.
This year’s COL-COA presented 30 new French films premiering in Hollywood. The festival also honored director Bertrand Blier (Too Beautiful for You) in its Focus on a Filmmaker event, with the premiere of his new film The Clink of Ice (Le Bruit des Glaçons) and a special screening of his critically acclaimed 1979 dark comedy Cold Cuts (Buffet Froid). The festival also screened the restored print of director Pierre Schoendoerffer’s 1965 war film The 317th Platoon (La 317ème Section), the first film to portray the French Vietnam war. The film was restored by the Cinemathèque française, in partnership with the Franco-American Cultural Fund.
COL-COA is the flagship program of the FACF — a unique collaborative effort of the DGA, the Motion Picture Association, Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM), and the Writers Guild of America, west.